NASA posts image of crashed flying 'saucer' from space

Adding spice to the admission, the space agency also admitted that the mysterious object in the Utah desert had been “tracked by radar and chased by helicopters”.

But no little green men were involved – and no mysterious alien corpses were hauled out of the wreckage for autopsy, NASA said.

In fact, the “saucer” is the Genesis sample return spacecraft, which landed with a bang when its parachutes failed to open in 2004.

This ‘flying saucer’ is the Genesis sample return spacecraft, which landed with a bang when its parachutes failed to open in 2004. It was launched in 2001 to study the sun. Source: NASA

“The saucer, pictured here, was the Genesis sample return capsule, part of a human-made robot Genesis spaceship launched in 2001 by NASA itself to study the Sun,” NASA said on its Astronomy Photo of the Day website.

“The Genesis mission had been orbiting the Sun collecting solar wind particles that are usually deflected away by Earth’s magnetic field.

“Despite the crash landing, many return samples remained in good enough condition to analyse. So far, Genesis-related discoveries include new details about the composition of the Sun and how the abundance of some types of elements differ across the Solar System.”